Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola said that the individual achievements of his players must be viewed in a way related to the team’s success and steady level after Rahim Sterling scored two goals in a 4-0 victory over Watford in the English Premier League yesterday.
City striker Sterling increased his tally to 19 goals in the league this season, but Guardiola wanted to remind his players 15 points behind champions Liverpool, who have an extra match left.
"It is important for Rahim to score goals, but we must not forget that we finished the competition with a big difference from the champion. This is not appropriate for us," Guardiola told reporters.
"Of course we turned out much better than 18 teams. The difference between the second and the first is great, and the difference between the second and the third is great too, but that is not enough."
He continued, "Individual achievements must always be linked to the team's achievements, which did not happen."
This result means that Guardiola won four consecutive league matches for the first time this season, while the Spanish coach said that his team needed to remain more level in order to compete for the title 2020-2021.
"We still need to know that we are a long way from Liverpool. This is the first time we have won four consecutive league games this season. Two seasons ago we achieved 18 and last season we achieved 14," Guardiola added.
"This shows the extent of the lack of stability in the level this season because we have the same squad. This happened because of some mistakes and I need to find out before the next season."
City will end its league match at home to Norwich City next Sunday.